Professor Lucie Cluver honoured abroad for transforming the lives of vulnerable children
Professor Lucie Cluver, a distinguished academic jointly affiliated with the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Oxford, has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours List.
The recognition honours her outstanding contributions to children’s wellbeing and global public health.
Professor Cluver serves as an honorary professor in UCT’s Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, and as a professor of Child and Family Social Work at Oxford. For over 14 years, she has co-led pioneering interdisciplinary research alongside Associate Professor Elona Toska, director of UCT’s Accelerate Research Hub, and Professor Cathy Ward, head of UCT’s Safety and Violence Initiative and the Centre for Social Science Research.
“I am honoured and amazed at being given this award. Every impact that we have had is because of an incredible team of PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and colleagues across South Africa and the UK who are dedicated to improving the lives of children,” said Cluver.
“Being at the University of Oxford and University of Cape Town gives us an incredible privilege: the academic freedom to pursue research that can directly help the most vulnerable.”
From 2019 to 2024, Cluver led the UKRI GCRF Accelerating Achievement for Africa’s Adolescents Hub, a £20 million initiative headquartered at Oxford and co-led with Toska at UCT. The programme united researchers, policymakers and practitioners to develop scalable strategies for improving adolescent outcomes across Africa.
In partnership with Professor Ward, Cluver co-leads the Global Parenting Initiative, launched in 2022. The project delivers free, evidence-based parenting support aimed at preventing child abuse, exploitation and family violence. Its reach spans leading universities and global foundations, targeting the most vulnerable families with accessible, effective interventions.
During the Coronavirus pandemic, Cluver played a critical role in the Covid-19 Emergency Parenting Response, developed in collaboration with UCT and Professor Jamie Lachman. Backed by WHO, UNICEF and PEPFAR, the initiative reached over 210 million people in 198 countries and was adopted by 34 national governments.
Reflecting on her journey, Cluver said: “In 2002, I was a social worker in Nyanga, trying to help mothers and children dying of HIV/AIDS. I asked what they needed, and to my astonishment, they said ‘research‘… Now we work with governments, UN agencies and donors to answer that question for millions of children.”
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